Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

The union says negotiators sent by the company did not have actual authority to negotiate, AT&T says "CWA's claims ... are not grounded in fact".

I think I know which side I'd tend to believe.

Major internet outages are reported in North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, which AT&T says will be remedied by Tuesday morning.

It is to laugh. Odds are the managers who are getting into trucks to do fixes and installs haven't touched tools in 5-10 years and will be incredibly slow and inept.

My heart goes out to anyone in the area who is stuck with AT&T for internet service while the strike is on. Back shortly after we'd moved back to Cloudcroft in '09, our cell carrier was Alltel, and they were fantastic for rural area coverage, which was what we needed. Wonderful in other things, too: they literally called me about a problem with my bill, which saved me $300! Anyway, they got bought out by Verizon, as these things happen. EXCEPT in our area, where such a merger was deemed anticompetitive, and they were given to AT&T! SCREW THAT! I knew what kind of service my friends got with AT&T, so we cancelled the contract, switched to Verizon, and have had pretty good service ever since. There's no way I'll do business with an AT&T company if I can possibly avoid it.

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/17/nx-s1-5079614/att-workers-strike-contract-negotiations

The Slashdot comments, at least at this time, as kind of amusing.
https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/0228218/as-17000-att-workers-strike-some-customers-experience-prolonged-outages

Sweden doesn't have uniform labor standard like the USA does, not that our labor standards are truly uniform. There, they are negotiated on union by union basis. But apparently the unions are very good at showing solidarity...

Well, Tesla has pissed off the dock workers, and it's spreading.

From the Wired article's headline, "Starting Friday (last), dockworkers in all Swedish ports will refuse to offload Teslas, cleaning crews will no longer clean showrooms, and mechanics won’t fix charging points as the labor dispute rages on." For five years, the mechanics union has been trying to get Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement, and for five years, Tesla has refused. They went on strike in October, and now other unions are joining in.

Snippets from the article:
--Since November 7, union members working at four Swedish ports have been refusing to unload Tesla cargo. Tomorrow, the blockade will be extended to all ports ... “We don’t want to unload any Tesla cars,” says Jimmy Åsberg, who is president of the dockworkers’ branch of Sweden’s transport union ... “We are going to allow every other car [to dock], but the Tesla cars, they will stay on the ship.”

--The Swedish Building Maintenance Workers’ Union will also join the Tesla blockade on Friday at 12 pm local time, “simply because the [IF] Metall Workers Trade Union asked us to,” says ombudsman Torbjörn Jonsson, adding that the union has around 50 members who clean Tesla locations. Four showrooms and service centers will be affected—three around Stockholm and one in the city of Umeå. “Their workshops and showrooms will not be cleaned.”

--Three days later, on November 20, the Seko union, which represents postal workers, will stop delivering letters, spare parts, and pallets to all of Tesla’s addresses in Sweden. “Tesla is trying to gain competitive advantages by giving the workers worse wages and conditions than they would have with a collective agreement,” said Seko’s union president, Gabriella Lavecchia, in a statement. “It is of course completely unacceptable.”

Swedish media reports that Teslas are being unloaded at Danish ports and being driven across the border. Now, if the cars themselves are being driven across the border, then I would think the cars could not be sold as new. If they're being transported across the border on trucks, that's different. There's no doubt Elon is anti-union, he's been so forever, but the EU as a whole is very much pro-union and he may have to rethink his approach if he wants on-going success there.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sweden-tesla-strike-cleaners

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/11/18/0041200/swedish-workers-are-uniting-against-tesla

This is the first time that the UAW has gone against all three at the same time, and it worked. They're getting a 25% wage increase over the next 4.5 years along with cost of living increases and other concessions, so a great win for the union!

This is a tentative agreement, but those are usually ratified.

Meanwhile, Toyota, a non-union shop, increased worker's pay, seeing a huge risk that if they didn't, the likelihood of workers wanting to join a union would greatly increase.

And meanwhile meanwhile, Tesla is in the UAW's sights. The Muskbrat, one of the richest men in the world depending on how stock valuations are doing, is notoriously anti-union and has been fined for violating labor laws on multiple occasions.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/the-uaw-beat-the-big-three-elon-musks-tesla-is-among-its-next-targets/

You just know Disney is not happy with this at all. Walt was a huge hater of unions, and I'm sure that's an ongoing thing with The Mouse.

Amongst their complaints are unpaid overtime, being forced to skip meal breaks, and "incredible pressure to meet deadlines".

https://gizmodo.com/marvel-vfx-studio-unionize-historic-unanimous-vote-yes-1850834298

Wait a minute. NOW we're going to have to start tipping retail employees?!!!

Now, this is a bargaining item in contract negotiations. While I can agree with many of their asks, this one? This one I would say a hard 'no' to. In the USA, we tip in restaurants because, unlike most of the civilized world, we don't believe that working in a restaurant is a respectable job and career in and of itself, and we pay those people shit. Those restaurant wage floors 'because they make it up in tips' is utter bullshit and go back to discriminatory practices against black people.

But this? Retail doesn't pay great, and really doesn't make for a career outside of management, but they're paid better than minimum wage. And Apple Store employees I expect make well above minimum wage, though I do not know it for a fact. I would think Genius Bar people are paid quite well as they require very specialized and in-depth knowledge and have to pass exams to get the job.

But overall tipping for retail? No. The fundamental problem is our screwed-up economy here in the USA that demeans jobs and tries to suppress wages. I will gladly pay more for a meal in exchange for no tipping, or none of that 'surcharge for employee healthcare and wellness' tacked on to my bill. If I find that on my restaurant ticket, it's probably the last time that I'll eat there. Add a buck to every entry, $0.50 on everything else, and make it work based on additional revenue.

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-workers-union-in-towson-fighting-for-tipping-2023-5

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/23/05/05/2036208/unionized-apple-store-workers-want-you-to-start-tipping-them


In a related story, customers at SELF-SERVICE KIOSKS ARE BEING ASKED TO TIP! A tip is supposed to be a reward for good service, not for the privilege of us parting with our money! It's been seen at Newark Airport and sports stadiums. YOU ARE NOT BEING SERVED! Supposedly tips are being shared out, but do we know this for a fact?

No, if I tip, I want to see the person who is receiving it, and I want it to be justified. A self-serve kiosk is not justification saying that there are other people working there who will receive it.

https://www.businessinsider.com/customers-are-hesitant-to-tip-at-self-check-out-2023-5


While I am overall a big fan of unions, this is just overreach. Then again, if you don't ask for it, you won't get it, so what's the harm in asking?

And remember: Tip Your Local Librarian!

;-)